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Voyage en Afrique rentière

07/10/2013 - Article

This book looks at the notion of income in sub-Saharan Africa, in the modern world. Through the notion, the author takes a pertient look at economic, social and territorial issues.

This book is not a new economic study of income: it uses the notion to look at African development trajectories and examine the possibilities of change. Income is in this case defined as resource flows disconnected from productive activities. They reflect the tragic history of Africa's connection with the global system: from the slave trade to extractive resources, which underlie a belief in the "curse of natural resources", through external aid or migratory flows, income-based economic systems seal the asymmetrical relations between African countries and external players as well as the split between the interests of the elite and the general population. They are rooted in history, but have grown and become more diverse since the late 20th century, to the extent that they now seem to be a structural fact, the Gordian knot of under-development.

The geography of income is a political one. Through this "trip" through income-based situations with different implications, which most often leads the reader to West and Central Africa, the author looks at the areas of divergence associated with a double revolution, in which lies the major part of Africa's potential for emergence. The first is demographic and urban, linked to the population and urban explosion, which creates conditions that favour the development of domestic markets. The second is politico-economic; it centres on the gradual negotiation of new conditions for both production, and investment of income, notably extractive. To draw maximum benefit from it, more effective, democratic models of governance will have to be found.